Otso Cycles hails from Burnsville, MN., which is a long ways from where the brand’s identity is rooted. In Finnish mythology, Otso is the Spirit of the Bear; the noble king of the forest, a spirit of strength and courage, and also a relative with whom we share our adventures in and out of the wilderness.
Voytek (Wojtek, meaning “Happy Warrior” in Polish) was a brown bear that in an interesting set of circumstances was enlisted in the Polish Army during WWII. Voytek was a happy warrior indeed; he drank beer, smoke (or ate) cigarettes, wrestled with the troops and carried 100-pound crates of ammunition into battle.
The sharp minds at Otso are also the brains that bring us Wolf Tooth Components and along with their unique brand identity, they appear to have put that same level of thought and detail into the Voytek Plus-Fat bike.
The Voytek is a carbon hardtail that accepts 27.5+, 29+ and 26 x 4.6 tires on up to 70mm rims (tire clearance is from Otso’s website… we’ll be playing around with different tire and wheel mashups during testing). One of the big stand-out features of the Voytek is the narrow Q-factor; 30-50mm narrower than typical for a fat-bike. If you’ve had to give up your fat-bike because of knee pain caused by the wide B.B., this could be your solution!
The rear dropout features Otso’s Tuning Chip, which allows the chainstay length to be changed from 430mm to 450mm. In our current testing mode, the Voytek fits a 27.5×4.0 Terrene Cake Eater on a 50mm rim in the shorter chainstay length. The tukt rear end plus some modern trail geometry promise to make this bike a ton of fun out on the trail.
Our test rig came boxed as carefully and professionally as I’ve seen. Expecting to see a previously ridden demo bike in the box, the sight of a brand new bike sort of blew my mind!
Build spec on our test Voytek is lovely:
Frame: EPS carbon fiber with patent pending Tuning Chip dropout. 120mm suspension corrected. Internal dropper routing. Narrow Q-factor.
Fork: Rock Shox Bluto RCT3 100mm travel.
Headset: Cane Creek 40 Series, IS41/IS52 with Wolf Tooth bling kit.
Handlebar: Race Face Next carbon: 20mm rise, 725mm width.
Stem: Race Face Ride 80mm (swapped out for fit).
Seatpost: FSA SLK carbon.
Saddle: WTB Volt, custom Otso graphics (swapped out for fit).
Wheels: DT Swiss 350 w/ Sun Ringle Duroc 27.5x50mm.
Crank: Race Face NEXT R 83mm with 175mm crank arms and custom offset Wolf Tooth CAMO system, 32T chainring.
BB: Race Face (PF107, 41mm OD).
Rear Shifter: Sram Eagle GX 12 speed.
Rear Derailleur: Sram Eagle GX 12 speed.
Cassette: Sram Eagle GX 10-50 12 speed.
Brakes: Magura M4.
This build spec. isn’t currently listed on Otso’s site, but they have confirmed that you can order one done up like our test rig for $4600 USD.
Weight as photographed, with pedals, repair kit in the seat bag, B-rad pump bag, Revelate Gas Tank and h20 cage: 29.5 lbs. Otso claims a medium with a rigid fork and tubeless set-up is 24 lbs.
Otso does provide several different build options and price points for you to choose from when ordering as well.
The test rig came with two pairs of tires; a pair of Terrene McFly 2.8’s and a pair of Terrene Cake Eater 4.0’s. The idea here is with the Voytek’s “Plus – Fat” concept, you’ve got two bikes in one with a simple swap of the tires… 2.8 “plus” tires for trail ripping and the 4.0 “fat” tires for snow, sand, deep woods bushwacking, etc. Is this set-up a “quiver killer”? We’re fixin’ to find out!
Otso has been generous enough to grant us a long-term test on the Voytek Plus – Fat rally build, so we’ll be ripping it in the dirt through the rest of Summer and Fall until we can rip it in the snow come Winter time. Stay tuned, and happy trails!
SB.
For more information about Otso visit – https://otsocycles.com/
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